his official record bears the closest examination for the vigor and administrative ability which distinguished it throughout. As at that time he consented with reluctance to engage in politics, so in 1869, it was only after repeated solicitation, by the various nominating conventions, to which were added the urgent appeals of personal friends, that he was finally induced to become a candidate for the mayoralty, it being generally conceded that no other citizen combined so completely the elements of success. The result was in keeping with the past, and showed that his personal popularity was not overestimated. He was elected in the face of a combination of partizan engineering and moneyed influence such as has rarely been concentrated against a political candidate. Never defeated before the people, the stamp of success seems to be inevitably affixed to every thing with which he is associated. Seventeen years before, when he was elected Alderman, the city contained about 45,000 inhabitants, and polled 8,023 votes: in 1869, with a population estimated at about 160,000, the vote was 21,600, a falling off of 4,000 from the Presidential vote of the previous year.

The positions of honor and trust which Mr. Selby has filled in mercantile and social life, it would be difficult to enumerate. President of the Merchants' Exchange, and the first President of the Industrial School Association, he was foremost in organizing those bodies, and was an active member of the committees that superintended the erection of the buildings for both. President of the Board of Trustees of Calvary Church, and of the City College, a life director of the Mercantile Library Association, and an establisher and liberal supporter of two seminaries of learning in San Mateo county, his name is honorably connected with the progress of enlightenment and education in California. In a number of instances, he has been appointed executor of valuable estates, and always without bonds.

With an activity and healthy vigor of mind and body which honors the most exacting demands on their power of endurance, Mr. Selby systematises his time so as to transact a surprising amount of business. No accumula

tion of labor seems to embarrass or annoy him, while a habit of directing the efforts of others enables him to keep every part of the complicated machinery in motion. without hurry or confusion. Besides the establishment on California street, which is his financial headquarters, Mr. Selby has branch stores at Marysville and Stockton, with their ramifications extending to all parts of the State. His Silver and Lead Smelting Works at North Beach, San Francisco, which cost $100,000 to erect, are the means of keeping not less than twenty mines in operation in California, Nevada, and Arizona, this being their only market. Ores and crude metal, worth $150,000, may at any time be seen piled up, awaiting reduction at the works, which give constant occupation to about seventy-five men; while, indirectly, several hundred miners are kept employed by this ready consumer of the product of their labor. Add to this another branch of industry, his San Francisco Shot Tower, and some idea may be formed of the extent and variety of his engagements. This establishment employs a large number of men, both at the works, and in the mines supplying it with lead. The manufacture of shot in California is due to the energy and persistency of purpose of Mr. Selby, who commenced it amid manifold discouragements, and the general prediction of his failure to compete with the Eastern States. It has proved successful, however, and nearly the whole Pacific coast is supplied from this source, while a powerful impetus is given to California industry.

About thirty miles from San Francisco-an hour and a quarter by rail-is the country seat of Mr. Selby-a place of about five hundred acres, and a model of rural attractiveness and high cultivation. The eye is never wearied admiring the landscape of broad fields waving with fertility, blending the richest foliage, tropical in its luxuriance, with a pleasing diversity of grain and pasture land, and the view bounded in the distance by picturesque, wood-crowned hills. The estate produces annually from five to ten thousand bushels of the cereals, and an orchard-the largest in San Mateo county-yields

two thousand bushels of choice fruits. Amid the continual demands upon his time, Mr. Selby finds leisure for a personal supervision of this extensive property, which, for its genial climate and quiet pastoral beauty, is a favorite resort after the cares of the day, in preference to his city residence. Adorned with every appliance that art and refined taste can suggest, this mansion is the summer retreat of the family, and while its fortunate proprietor may felicitate himself in the contemplation of a successful and honorable business career, he is equally happy in the companionship of that personal loveliness and amiability which, when they grace the social circle, hallow and endear the sacred name of home. Under Mr. Selby, San Francisco entered upon a new era of prosperity. Conciliatory and popular in manners, liberal alike in theory and practice, with a record for integrity that has always stood above the breath of suspicion, and thoroughly conversant with the requirements of the city where he has spent his best years, he commenced his official duties under the most favorable auspices, and his term as Mayor, when reviewed hereafter, will exhibit the same beneficent motives and practical intelligence that have hitherto guided his actions in the walks of private and public life.

JAMES NISBET AND FRANKLIN TUTHILL.

N the month of August, 1865, the San Francisco Evening Bulletin chronicled a loss which is quite remarkable in the history of journalism on the Pacific coast. Two of its proprietors and leading editors, who had done much to give the paper the high character it still maintains, were lost to it by death-the one by a dreadful marine disaster on the northern coast, the other by disease on the eastern side of the continent, and both within a few days of each other. James Nisbet, who was long the news and literary editor of the paper, and who deserves a place in this work as the first historian of San Francisco, was lost at sea on the steamship Brother Jonathan, July 30th, 1865. This vessel was on the way from San Francisco to Victoria, V. I., with almost two hundred souls on board, when she struck a sunken rock off St. George's Point, eight or ten miles north-west from Crescent City, and went down about forty-five minutes afterwards. All on board were lost except about a score of persons. Among the passengers who perished, besides Mr. Nisbet, were Maj. Gen. George W. Wright, of the United States Army, and wife; Gen. A. C. Henry, of Washington Territory; Major E. W. Eddy, of the United States Army, several other army and navy officers, and a number of citizens of California prominent for worth and talent. Amid the terrible scene transpiring around him at the wreck, and with the horror of sudden death staring him in the face, with hardly a possibility that it would be averted, Mr. Nisbet was calm and thoughtful enough to write out

a will in pencil, and to address notes of farewell to some of his friends, even remembering some children of whom he was fond by their pet names. The act was characteristic of his unselfish and courageous nature. His remains were recovered, brought to San Francisco, and interred in Lone Mountain Cemetery, where rest those of his former associates on the Bulletin-its founder, James King of Wm., C. J. Bartlett, and C. O. Gerberding, who preceded him a few years.

Mr. Nisbet was born in Glasgow, Scotland, about the year 1817. His parents were of high respectability and considerable fortune, and he enjoyed during youth every desirable opportunity for that intellectual training which developed his naturally vigorous mind to form a very useful character. On arriving at the proper age, he chose the profession of law, and after graduating, traveled over the principal countries of Europe. Subsequently he became a partner in a prominent Glasgow firm of lawyers. He was more inclined to seek literary pursuits than to contend for the rights of clients in the legal tribunals, and always abstained from appearing as an advocate. His strong tendency to literature is shown by the fact, known to only a few intimate friends, that he was the author of an elaborate and meritorious novel, published before leaving Scotland, under the title of The Seige of Palmyra. He always cherished the purpose of devoting himself to some literary work that might give him a permanent reputation. In about the year 1852, having previously lost a considerable property by an unfortunate investment in railroad stock, he decided to seek a reparation of his fortune in some remote portion of the world, where there might be better opportunities for profitable personal exertion than in his native land. With this view he first visited Austra-. lia, but was disappointed in the aspect of affairs there pre-, sented, and after spending a few weeks in inspecting the gold mines, returned to England. A few weeks later he set sail for California, where he arrived in November, 1852. In San Francisco he first found employment in writing a work historical and descriptive of this city-the well known Annals of San Francisco, in the authorship of